The ideological and artistic originality of the poem “The Twelve. "Features of the composition of the poem A

Ideological artistic originality A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"

Candidate Ped. Sciences, Associate Professor KFU

The poem "The Twelve" marked new stage in creativity. Written in the first winter after the October Revolution, it surprised contemporaries with its unusual content and form. “Immortal as folklore,” O. Mandelstam, a contemporary of Blok, assessed the poem in this way.

In the poem "The Twelve" Blok pointed out the question of the spiritual essence of the arbiters new history XX century. In the center of the poem "The Twelve" is the state of human souls. Home internal theme The poem is a question of faith, conscience, the precariousness of convictions, the Russian reckless inclination to sin and repentance.

The problematics of the poem demanded an update of the aesthetic arsenal, a qualitatively different artistic expressiveness. The author sets out to convey the "music of the revolution". He seeks to find new form most relevant to the content of the poem. The many-voiced noise of the revolutionary city breaks into it with its rhythms, sounds, its songs.

A. Blok's poem "The Twelve" traces the traditions of oral folk poetry.

Just like in Russian folk tale there is a fairy-tale "double world", in which there is "one's own" world (the kingdom of the hero) and a "foreign" world (the kingdom of the enemy), and in Blok's poem real world divided into two contrasting halves. A concrete manifestation of reality is “bourgeois at the crossroads”, “hungry dog”, brothel, officer debauchery, “disassembly” with a knife blow, the murder of an officer, a priest, etc. The polar world found its expression in the “holy” beginning of the revolution - the image Christ associated with the idea of ​​renewal.

Blok's small poem, due to the presence of ambiguous, symbolic details in it, strikes with the depth of insight.

The action of the poem takes place "In all God's world" against the backdrop of raging natural elements. Noises, rhythms, voices of Russia embraced by a revolutionary whirlwind were brilliantly embodied by Blok in the poem.

There are images of wind, snow and blizzards in the poem. These images are symbols not only of the raging elements, but also of future changes. It seems that everything is mixed up, spun in a whirlwind. There is chaos and disorder all around, where there is a battle between good and evil, black (old world) and white ( new world). The raging natural element of snow takes the heroes away from the comfort of home, from love and passion to another world - cruel, cold, requiring courage.

In "The Twelve" the element itself sounds. Here are her musical themes, her rhythmic play, dissonances and contrasts. The rhythmic structure of the poem is based on the colloquial-song system of Russian folk speech. These are ditties, and popular prints, and crying, and lamentations. They are adjoined by urban romance and march. "Twelve" is Blok's most unconventional work.

The poem has real and metaphorical plans. The procession of twelve sailors is really a movement along the snow-covered streets, but also symbolic - as the path of revolution and history.

Black evening.

White snow.

Wind, wind!

A person does not stand on his feet.

Wind, wind -

In all God's world!

The "old world" is present in the poem in the form of a bourgeois and the image of a dog, rootless, lonely and feral. The twelve are fused into a single, monolithic image, because the elements are embodied through them. Their unity is expressed in gait.

Blok does not close his eyes to the rampant elements. Her cruelty causes an internal protest in him. But there is simply no other way than through tragedy, through "sin". The violent freemen with robbery and drunkenness are perceived by the poet not as the personal fault of the barbarians, but as their tragic misfortune.

Cosmic and earthly, worldly and worldly are inseparable in the poem. The elements of nature echo the human, human storms evoke reciprocal winds in the surrounding world. After Katya's death: “Something blizzard broke out, oh, blizzard, oh, blizzard! Not to see each other at all for four steps!” A raging snowstorm makes Petrukha remember, exclaim: “Oh, what a blizzard, Savior!” But the comrades again correct him: “- Petka! Hey, don't lie! Why did the golden iconostasis save you? You are unconscious, really, judge, think sensibly - or are your hands not covered in blood because of Katya's love? And again the refrain - it is addressed not only to Petrukha - to all the soldiers of the Red Guards, to the entire rebellious people: “Keep the revolutionary step! The restless enemy is near!” And in confirmation - persistent, imperious, obliging, on behalf of History - a three-fold call to exert strength: "Forward, forward, forward, working people!"

An important place in the poem is occupied by the idea that there is freedom, but there is still no holy beginning:

Freedom, freedom

Eh, eh, no cross!

The heroes of Blok go "without a cross." But at the head of them, the poet sees none other than Jesus Christ. The author wanted to embody the symbol of the new world in the image of Christ, bringing moral purification to humanity, the age-old ideals of humanism. Blok draws an analogy between the era of disintegration tsarist Russia and the era of the death of Rome, when the legend arose about Christ as the herald of a new world religion. Christ, the symbol of the renewal of life, was to act as such a herald in the poem. But for the majority of the real Red Guards, Christ was in fact identified with the religion and tsarism against which they fought.

Blok himself felt the lack of persuasiveness of the image of Christ in the text of The Twelve. However, it was in this way that he concluded his work. It was in the image of Christ that Blok embodied both his expectation of the revolution, and his faith in its purifying power, and his disappointment in it, and the acquisition of a new faith - faith in the moral rebirth of people.

Blok wrote: “When I finished, I myself was surprised: why Christ? But the more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ. And then I wrote down at my place: "Unfortunately, Christ."

In the plot of the poem, one can see similarities with the biblical legend. new era, in Blok's understanding, is an update public consciousness: instead of pagan beliefs and sacrifices to the gods, a new faith was established, associated with the need for universal equality. On the one hand, an obsolete world deserves to be destroyed. The poet rejoices that this ugly world is being replaced by something new, perhaps more perfect. On the other hand, this affirming new in some details is inextricably linked with the past. That's why:

Anger, sad anger

Boiling in the chest...

Black malice, holy malice...

A detachment of twelve Red Guards, associated with the apostles, does terrible deeds on its way: the murder of Katya, robbery and stabbing. This shows their connection with the old world - the world of the wild, unbridled, evil:

And they go without the name of a saint

All twelve - away,

Ready for everything

Nothing to be sorry

Blok does not accept the moral squalor of the twelve Red Guards, but that is precisely why he puts Jesus Christ at their head. Christ in the poem acts as a symbol of the new, a symbol of the spiritual renewal of the nation.

The Red Guards are not yet aware of the renewal that, according to the poet, they bring to the people, but they undoubtedly bring it. That's why

Ahead - with a bloody flag

And invisible behind the blizzard

And unharmed by a bullet

With a gentle step over the south,

Snowy scattering of pearls,

In a white corolla of roses -

In front is Jesus Christ.

The chapters of the poem are heterogeneous, but in general, this stylistic disunity is intended to give a real reflection of reality. In the poem, you can find elements of folklore, prison lyrics, ditties, vulgarisms. Here, next to the revolutionary pathos, the elements of the declassed lower classes freely “get along”, and all manifestations of life are taken in some minor details, as in real reality.

wrote about the poetic richness of Blok’s poem: “Immersed in his native element popular uprising, Blok overheard her songs, spied on her images ... ".

During the period of writing the poem, Blok was especially interested in urban folklore, he recorded the voices of the city streets he heard. Here are the turns of modern vernacular (even abuse), and the traditional song vocabulary. Familiar words and vulgarisms ("electrical", "junkerier", "already") determine the social coloring of the characters' language.

Blok sought to convey "the music of street words and expressions". He heard the sounds of this music in everything: “in passion and in creativity, in popular revolt and in scientific work, in the revolution. The music of the revolution is conveyed in the poem not only by the elements of vernacular, with which the scenes on the Petrograd bridges are saturated. In place of "earthiness" comes oratorical pathos.

Lines from "The Twelve" returned to folk speech: the poet penetrated so deeply into its specificity. Many formulas of the poem sounded like proverbs and sayings: “Wind, wind - in all God's world!”, “What did the golden iconostasis save you from?” The slogans of the poem could be seen on the Red Army banners, posters and armored trains. "Twelve" is Blok's pinnacle achievement in mastering folklore.

In folk oral poetry, the symbolism of numbers is traditional. Often there are words that are multiples of three and reflect the ancient mythological thinking of people: 3,6,9,12. Twelve is the key number of the poem, and many associations can be associated with it. First of all, it is twelve hours - midnight, twelve months - the end of the year. It turns out some kind of “borderline” number, since the end of an old day (or year), as well as the beginning of a new one, is always overcoming a certain milestone, a step into an unknown future. For A. Blok, the fall of the old world became such a boundary. It's not clear what's ahead. Probably, the “global fire” will soon spread to all things.

Another numerical association is the twelve apostles. This is indirectly indicated by the names of two of them - Andryukha and Petrukha. Let us also recall the story of the Apostle Peter, who denied Christ three times in one night. But with A. Blok, the opposite is true: Petrukha returns to the faith three times in one night and retreats again three times. In addition, he is the killer of his former lover.

Wrapped a scarf around his neck -

No way to recover.

The musicality of the poem is expressively conveyed by its rhythm. The impetuousness and at the same time the complexity of moving forward are emphasized by the impulsive and difficult rhythm, as if the poem itself is in motion, in constant interruptions. The rhythm of the verse changes all the time, emphasizing the turbulent changeability of life itself, corresponding to the depicted episode. When a detachment of twelve Red Guards enters the poem, the rhythm becomes clear, marching. The change of rhythm causes the extraordinary dynamics of the verse. Thanks to the energy of rhythm, literally every word “works”. Blok wrote: “The power of rhythm raises the word on the spine of a musical wave...”

The language of the poem combines the usual for the former book vocabulary with the common people, "street" dialect, slang expressions. The poet uses words from folk songs, ditty forms of verse. Inserts real slogans of those days into the text:

From building to building

The rope is stretched.

On the rope - poster:

"All power to the Constituent Assembly!"

The range of vocabulary is unusually wide - from solemn intonations:

Revolutionary keep step!

The restless enemy does not sleep!

to gross vulgarisms:

wore gray leggings,

Chocolate "Mignon" ate,

I went for a walk with the cadet -

With the soldier now went!

“The poem The Twelve, however, managed to make a hole in the broad crowd, the crowd that had never read Blok before. The poem "The Twelve" was identified by this crowd by ear, as related to it in its verbal construction, verbal phonetics, which could hardly be called "bookish" at that time and which rather approached the ditty form. Despite the poet’s creative silence, his popularity, thanks to the “street” phonetics of The Twelve, grew from day to day, ”Shklovsky assessed the artistic originality of the poem.

Blok's poem "The Twelve" was the result of Blok's knowledge of Russia, its rebellious elements, and creative potential.

Literature

1. Alexander Blok. Collected works in six volumes - L.: Fiction., 1982. - T. 5. - S. 248.

2. Zhirmunsky Alexander Blok. Overcoming symbolism. M., 1998.

3. Kling O.: the structure of the “novel in verse”. Poem "Twelve". M., 1998.

4. Orlov Block - M .: "Tsentrpoligraf", 2001. - S. 533-534. - 618 p.

5. Shklovsky table // Shklovsky account: Articles - memories - essays (1914-1933). M .: Soviet writer, 1990. S. 175.

6. Etkind of A. Blok's poem "The Twelve" // Russian Literature. 1972. No. 1.

The poem was written in 1913, immediately after the revolutionary events. The poem reflected as real events that Blok witnessed (the harsh winter of 1918, bonfires in the streets, Red Army soldiers patrolling the streets, Speaking those times) and the views of the poet himself on history, the essence of civilization and culture. Blok's perception of the revolution is very peculiar, and this perception is primarily associated with the philosophical and aesthetic views of Blok himself, which were formed in the 10s. XX century.

The poet hates the vulgar, senseless, soulless life of the overwhelming majority of people, the "philistine", gradually the catastrophic worldview develops into a certain theory that interprets civilization and history in the spirit of Nietzscheism. A similar view of history and civilization was shared by Blok, about which he wrote in his articles: "Intelligentsia and Revolution", "Art and Revolution", "The Collapse of Humanism". It was precisely as a destructive element, a “Dionysian” principle that replaced the dilapidated culture, that Blok perceived the revolution. It is this theme that Blok's last two poems develop - "The Twelve" and "Scythians". Hence the most characteristic features that Blok consciously emphasizes in the essence of the revolution:

a) destructive element(the image of the wind, the restless representatives of the "old world", the anarchic nature of the actions and ideologies of the "twelve");

b) anti-Christian orientation(the refrain “Eh, eh, without a cross!”, Orthodox Christianity is perceived by Blok as part of civilization, that is, a degenerate “Apollonian principle”, a echo with the Nietzsche idea of ​​“the death of the old gods”) Blok had his own logic. For him, the destruction of a degenerate civilization is a blessed act, the key to understanding the image of Christ can be the phrase “World fire in the blood; God bless!";

in) amoralism(the murder of Katya, the hostility of the heroes of orthodox morality: the excerpt “I’ll scratch my crown, I’ll scratch ...”, the motive of the weapon: “black belts of rifles”, shooting, etc.);

G) the death of the old culture, civilization, the entire "old world" .

Having in mind his poem "The Twelve", Blok in the revolutionary and subsequent era (17-18 years) called for "listening to the music of the revolution", meaning by "music" the Nietzschean idea of ​​the "musical Dionysian element". Blok perceived the revolution as a universal destructive fire, which was supposed to bring the desired renewal. It is no coincidence that after the age of 18 Blok did not write anything significant until his death in 1921. The disappointment that followed from the fact that the revolution was not what Blok saw in it, and, in the words of Blok himself, from “socialist construction” (he writes about this in his diaries) was the reason for this.

The original title of the poem - "The Thirteenth Apostle" - was replaced by censorship. Mayakovsky said: “When I came to the censorship with this work, they asked me: “What do you want to go to hard labor?” I was asked - how can I combine lyrics and a lot of rudeness. Then I said: “Well, I will be, if you like, like a madman, if you want, I will be the most gentle, not a man, but a cloud in my pants.” The first edition of the poem (1915) contained a large number of censored banknotes. In full, without cuts, the poem was published in early 1918 in Moscow with a preface by V. Mayakovsky: “A cloud in pants” ... I consider it a catechism of today's art: “Down with your love!”, “Down with your art!”, “Down with your system!” , "Down with your religion" - four cries of four parts. Each part of the poem expresses a certain idea. The poem is not at all divided into compartments with its “Down!”, but is a holistic, passionate lyrical monologue, caused by the tragedy of unrequited love.

Ideological and artistic originality of the poem "The Twelve" by Alexander Blok.

Lesson Objectives: 1) educational: to show the polemical nature of the poem by A. A. Blok "The Twelve", her artistic features; repetition of concepts: genre, composition, symbol.

2) developing: development of skills and abilities of a lyric-epic work; improve expressive reading and the ability to analyze a poetic text; to improve the ability of students to draw independent conclusions after getting acquainted with the work of the poet.

3) educational: fostering interest in the work of A. A. Blok,

educate attention to the word, determine the author's attitude to the events of the 1917 revolution.

with the whole body,

With all my heart,

All consciousness-

Listen to the Revolution.

Creation of a poem:

- The poem was written in January 1812 in 3 days. Having finished the work, Blok wrote in his diary: “Today I am a genius!” "Twelve" - ​​whatever they are - is the best thing I've written. Because then I lived in modernity, ”the poet said. Every year, the surrounding reality more and more seemed to Blok a "terrible world" that must be destroyed. It is no coincidence that Blok perceived the revolution as a universal fire, which was supposed to bring the desired renewal. After 1918, the poet did not write anything significant until his death. Disillusionment with the revolution was the reason for this. The author very accurately felt the terrible thing that entered life: the complete depreciation of human life, which is no longer protected by any law. Everything became permitted. Unable to keep from the dark, terrible manifestations of the human soul and faith in God, she is also lost. Having lost moral guidelines, seized by rampant permissiveness - this is how Russia appears in the poem "12".

Teacher: - In this work, he did not express his attitude to the revolution, after the first reading, the poem usually causes bewilderment, as it is difficult to understand. Blok showed the revolution as an elemental phenomenon, which, like the wind, storm, hurricane, blizzard, has no purpose and direction. He wrote the revolution as he heard it. Blok heard a lot of sounds conveying shooting, slogan cries, march songs, ditties, and swearing. Contemporaries could not understand whether Blok welcomed the revolution or condemned it. According to V. Mayakovsky, "Some read in this poem a satire on the revolution, others - the glory of it."

The composition of the poem:

The poem consists of 12 chapters, built on the principle of a ring composition (night, winter, human figures on the streets - at the beginning and at the end of the work).

Each chapter has a certain independence. The poem seems to be made up of separate pictures that convey the confusion that reigned in those days on the streets and in the mind.

When does the action in the poem take place?(depicted is the harsh winter of 1918, bonfires in the streets, patrols)

- What details recreate the picture of that time?(Patrols of the Red Army on the streets of Petrograd really numbered 12 people each. The poem mentions “kerenki” - paper money that was issued by the Provisional Government, a lantern on the shafts that St. Petersburg cabbies flaunted, a poster “Power to the Constituent Assembly!”)

Reading the first chapter.

What images appear in chapter 1? ( evening, snow, wind)

Teacher: - The action of the poem develops against the backdrop of wind, blizzard. symbolic image the wind that dominates the world is further updated, develops, it seems to comment on what is happening: it knocks down some, it seems “fun” to others, when the Red Army soldiers appear, it joyfully “walks”.

At the heart of the work is a conflict, the struggle between the old and the new world. This clash cannot end in reconciliation, so polar are the fighting forces.

- What opposites collide?(old and new world, color, love and death, private and public)

Block is characterized by symbolic colors. What colors are present? Write down the phrases, try to explain the meanings. (“black evening” - chaos, anger, anxiety, a symbol of the “old world”;

"white snow" - purity, harmony, a symbol of the "new world";

"red flag" - the color of revolution, the color of blood (Katka is killed))

- How do passers-by relate to the revolution? Whose voices do we hear in chapter 1?(the voice of the old woman, she does not understand why so much matter was used in vain - something can be sewn from it for the children;

the pop says nothing, but he is "unhappy";

Reading 2,3,4,5,6 chapters.

- Consider the image of Katya. What do we know about her?(The image of Katya is endowed with realistic details: “she walked in lace underwear”, “she wore gray leggings”, “Mignon ate chocolate”, “she has Kerenki in her stocking”, “she fornicated with officers”; “teeth shine with pearls”, “painful legs are good "," Fat-faced. "Katka is a symbol of corrupt love, a symbol of old sinful, dissolute Russia).

What event underlies chapter 6?(The murder of Katya, as a spontaneous act, is the culmination of the poem. There is no crime, for murderers there is no moral standards their actions are out of control.

-How does Petrukha feel after Katya's murder?

(Awkwardly, repents, turns to his comrades for help. However, his repentance evokes pity in his comrades, and then anger and bitterness. Petruha, ashamed by his comrades, feels the inappropriateness of his suffering. He acts to drown out remorse. "He again cheered up." Blok definitely felt the terrible thing that had entered life - the complete depreciation of human life, which no longer protects any law: it never even occurs to anyone that someone will have to answer for Katya's murder. , now everything is allowed: “Lock the floors, today there will be robberies”).

Pay attention to the fact that 12 Red Army soldiers go WITHOUT A CROSS (that is, there is nothing sacred), and this is the future of Russia.

Reading 7,8,9,10 chapters11.

-How does Blok convey the music of the revolution? What rhythms did you hear?(Intonations sound in the poem march:

It beats in the eyes

Red flag.

Is distributed

measured step;

meet ditties:

Lock up the floors

There will be robberies.

Open the cellars

Walking now naked;

quoted in a poem revolutionary song:

Revolutionary keep step:

The restless enemy does not sleep!

heard romance:

Can't hear city noise

Silence over the Neva tower

And there is no more city-

Walk, guys, without wine.

In addition, one constantly hears crackling shots:

Fuck-tararah- tah-tah-tah-tah!

Reading chapter 11.

- What gave rise to the freedom given by the revolution?(From the feeling of a just revolution that has taken place, there is a mood of recklessness, an intoxication with freedom, characteristic of the urban squalor. The freedom given by the revolution gave rise to even more scary world. Now, people who have merged into a blood-red whirlwind are difficult, if not impossible, to stop, because they are avenging their past on everyone in a row. This is where their strong connection with the "old world" is clearly traced, "the rootless dog stands ... with his tail between his legs").

-What does Russia look like?

(Russia has lost its moral guidelines, is engulfed in rampant dark passions, rampant permissiveness. Old Russia symbolizes the bourgeois and the hungry dog, and the new one - twelve Red Army soldiers)

-Who is the hero of the poem? ("working people"

Reading chapter 12.

Teacher: - In chapter 12, twelve Red Army soldiers go through a blizzard. If they notice someone, they shout to stop, otherwise they will start shooting. At the end of the poem, the image of Christ appears.

- How to explain the appearance of the figure of Christ in the poem?

(There are many interpretations of the finale of the work.

Some researchers explained the appearance of Christ in the poem almost by chance, Blok's misunderstanding of who should be ahead of the Red Guards.

Others said that the appearance of Christ in the final testifies to the poet's perception of the revolution as holy and saving (Christ blesses what is happening)

Still others believed that the ending proves Blok's awareness of the inhuman essence of what is happening.

For the then reader, brought up in the traditions of Christian culture, who studied the Law of God at school, the number twelve was the number of the apostles, the disciples of Christ. The whole path that the heroes of Blok's poem follow is the path from the abyss to Sunday, from chaos to harmony.

The poem ends with the belief of A. Blok in the coming Sunday of Russia, the resurrection of the human in man. The struggle of the worlds in the work is, first of all, an internal struggle, overcoming by a person in himself the dark and terrible.

Homework:

Why do you think A.A. Blok appreciated his own essay - poem"Twelve" ("Today I'm a genius!")?

How would you interpret the image of Christ in A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"?

Literature:

N.V. Egoraeva, I.V. Zolotareva. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the 20th century. M., 2004

L.A. Skubachevskaya, T.V. Nadozirnaya, N.V. Slautina. Literature. Universal reference book. M., "Eksmo", 2011.

Test
on the history of Russian literature
on the topic:
Ideological and artistic originality
A. Blok's poem "The Twelve"
Done: student
Faculty of Russian Language and Literature
6 course (correspondence department)
Gordeeva Xenia
Checked by: Gorlanov G.E.

Penza 2011

Content :
Introduction

Symbolic images and their meaning in the poem "The Twelve"
Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction
The poem "The Twelve" by Alexander Alexandrovich Blok is one of the most striking works of Russian literature of the 20th century. The work was created in January 1918. The author creates a poem in a few days, in a single inspirational impulse. Usually demanding of himself, he, evaluating his creation, writes: “Today I am a genius.”
The poem is interesting for researchers both in its original form and in the depth of its ideological content. What is this poem about? About wind, night darkness, snowstorm, human passions, people's feat, Russia, revolution. More precisely, about revolutionary Petrograd at the turn of 1917 and 1918. Even more precisely, about what happened in Petrograd on the eve of January 5, 1918, the day the Constituent Assembly was convened and dispersed. Soviet power was already two months old.
The theme of the revolution resulted in the poet's work in his most significant and inspirational poem - "The Twelve". Blok's work is an unbiased, objective diary of revolutionary events. Alexander Blok said that "The Twelve" is the best thing he ever wrote. The content of the famous poem, where the music of the revolution sounded at the top of its voice, where the uplifted people's element rushed into the future, was the greatest upsurge of the people's spirit and people's anger. And the poet consecrated and blessed her in a way that personified for him the highest principles of human life - the principles of equality and brotherhood. For the author, the revolution is the element of the people that has broken free. In the article "Intelligentsia and Revolution" he wrote: "It is akin to nature. Woe to those who think to find in the revolution only the fulfillment of their dreams, no matter how lofty and noble they may be. Revolution, like a thunderstorm, like a snowstorm, always brings something new and unexpected; she cruelly deceives many; she easily maims the worthy in her whirlpool; she often brings the unworthy to land unharmed; but - these are its particulars, it does not change either the general direction of the stream, or that formidable and deafening rumble that the stream emits. This rumble, anyway, is always about the great.
The poem, published in February, evoked stormy and contradictory responses. She was talked about everywhere. Much in it seemed unacceptable to fellow writers. It was greeted with an outburst of indignation by the Russian intelligentsia. Bunin attacked the author with angry criticism, some of his friends turned away from him. But, despite this, Alexander Blok's poem rightfully took its place in the history of Russian literature.

Features of the plot of the poem "The Twelve"
To understand the ideological and artistic meaning of Alexander Blok's poem, its unique genre structure and plot features mean a lot.
As a truly innovative work, The Twelve defies strict genre definition. It is no coincidence that the genre nature of this work remained not entirely clear to Blok himself: he called it either a poem, or a poetic cycle, or simply “a series of poems under the general title“ Twelve ”.
Its composition is built on alternation, interruptions of dramatic situations and lyrical motifs. It turns out that the chapters written on white paper, i. those with which work on the poem began contain precisely all the main moments of the dramatic plot of this work. Here is the appearance, the “first exit”, of twelve Red Guards, and the exposition of a dramatic action - a conversation about Vanka and Katya (ch. XI), and the murder of Katya - the climax of the drama (ch. VI), and the suffering of Petrukha (ch. VII), and the resolution of his torment is a kind of social catharsis: "We are on the mountain to all the bourgeois // We will blow up the world fire" (ch. VIII and XII to line 327). It is very significant that the entire XII chapter up to the lyrical ending with Christ is given in the poem as a continuationPetrukha's monologue, begun in Chapter VIII and interrupted by lyrical digressions of intermediate chapters.
The poem "The Twelve" is divided not only into chapters, but also - internally, hiddenly - into scenes with monologues and dialogues. The narrative part itself is presented in it very modestly, and more precisely, the narration here constantly develops into a dramatic structure, and the author himself from a lyrical narrator now and then turns into actor. The first chapter of The Twelve is a kind of prologue in which the author himself plays a significant role. From the front of the stage, his voice is heard:
Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
At first, these words can be perceived as a remark by the playwright, giving an idea of ​​the situation in which the stage action is to unfold. Blok uses such “remarks” in other places, for example: “The wind is walking, snow is fluttering. Twelve people are walking, ”but these are remarks of a special kind, which are filled with deep meaning and gradually turn into a monologue or a scene of a general conversation. The contrast of the remark that opens the prologue scene makes it expressive from the very beginning, and after the word "wind" is repeated several times, the emotional tension increases, at the same time being filled with semantic ambiguity, anxiety, and meditation on a person caught in the universal wind:
Black evening.
White snow.
Wind, wind!
A person does not stand on his feet.
Wind, wind -
In all God's world!
The first chapter of the poem is a general exposition. Here, as on a cinematographic tape, the panorama of evening Petrograd is captured. A sharp wind is blowing, a drifting snow is playing, “under the snow - ice”. On the streets - people, the motley population of a big city: an old woman confused from everything that is happening; an embittered bourgeois who hid his face in his collar; an intellectual - "vitia", muttering something in an undertone about the "death of Russia", a fat-bellied and frightened priest, whining and cutesy young ladies; just passersby; street prostitutes; homeless vagrant...
Against this backdrop, a story unfolds. Late in the evening, under a black sky, in a blizzard that has broken out, a guard patrol of the Red Guards of twelve people is walking through the empty city. They say: "Freedom, freedom, eh, eh, without a cross!" , complain about the cold ("It's cold, comrades, it's cold!" , wary ("Revolutionary, keep your pace! The restless enemy does not sleep!", They remember Vanka and Katya, who have fallen in love, sit in a warm tavern and are busy with fun things.
Vanka, as it turns out, was also with them until recently. He could have been the thirteenth on the patrol, but he betrayed the common cause and duty: “There was our Vanka, but he became a soldier!” . That is, according to the exact meaning of the words, he went (also voluntarily) into the soldiers of Kerensky - perhaps he signed up for the shock battalions that Kerensky formed as his main support - and then, apparently, he deserted and is now full and drunk, " rich” (probably speculates), drags around taverns, drives reckless cars, has become a “son of a bitch” and a “bourgeois”. Katya is also a girl with a past: a street prostitute is not one of the most shabby. She walked in "lace underwear" and walked even with officers, but the vicissitudes of the times also touched her: “Walking with the cadetI went - now I went with the soldiers. In the recent past, she was the mistress of one of the twelve - Petrukha (this was the custom for the girls of her profession: a lover for the soul, "guests" for business), but she cheated on him for the sake of the wealthy, prosperous Vanka. Life with the jealous and violent Petrukha was full of vicissitudes: he, as it turns out, butchered some officer with whom Katya was "fornicating"; and she got it too:
On your neck, Katya,
The scar didn't heal from the knife
Katya is under your chest,
That scratch is fresh!
Here a dramatic picture of the struggle of passions and characters, hot love and blind jealousy opens up.
Petruha is having a hard time with Katya's betrayal and is full of hatred for Vanka, who violated the unwritten law of the street - he began to walk with "a strange girl". And now - on this blizzard, anxious night, a screaming, screaming reckless driver comes across towards the Red Guard patrol, and in the sledge - the traitor Vanka hugs the traitor Katya. For the second time, Petrukha, tormented by jealousy, with the help of his comrades, takes revenge: they shoot from rifles - they shoot, of course, at Vanka, but a stray bullet inadvertently hits his companion. The reckless driver with the surviving Vanka disappear in a snowstorm, and an accidental victim remains in the snow with a bullet through his head. Petruha threatens Vanka, who has carried off his legs:

Duck, scoundrel! Wait, stop
I'll deal with you tomorrow!
And, blinded by malice, hatred, a thirst for revenge, he addresses the dead Katya with cold contempt:
What, Katya, are you glad? - No hoo...
Lie down, you carrion in the snow!
But Petruha loved Katya deeply. And, when the haze of anger and revenge left his eyes, the "poor killer" completely lost heart, "stupefied." With sincere heartache, he recalls his Katya, the intoxicating nights spent with her, the miserable prowess of her fiery nights, the cherished “crimson mole”:
I ruined, stupid,
I ruined it, in the heat of the moment ... ah!
The comrades shame and encourage Petrukha, sternly reminding him of the great common cause for which they united. They are not up to his misfortune. They have their own worries: "Forward, forward, working people!" . And again he goes with a measured, iron, sovereign step - through the darkness and blizzard, protecting the revolution from the machinations of lurking, but restless enemies ...
V. Orlov in his monograph noted as follows: “But this whole dramatic story of love clashes and betrayals is only the frame of the poem, and not its flesh. The Twelve captures a grandiose historical picture of a decisive revolutionary turning point. It does not fit into the story just outlined. Like any great work of art, The Twelve leads the reader's thought and imagination in breadth and depth. Behind the plot, a tree of a general “world fire” grows, behind the scenes of a Petrograd street - all of Russia, which has broken its anchors, behind twelve Red Guards - all the people moving towards a new life. The main thing that can and should be said about the poem is that it brilliantly conveys the thunderous atmosphere of October.
The question of the features of the plot of the poem remains controversial at the present time. First of all, this is due to a change in ideology, understanding of social events. Modern researchers note that Blok captured a grandiose historical picture of the struggle between good and evil that took place in Russia after the 1917 revolution. Behind the love plot rises the glow of the "global fire", behind the Petrograd street - not only Russia, but also "the whole world of God", behind the twelve Red Guards, not only the Russian people, but all of humanity.
Between the beginning and the end of the poem, significant event: Petruha kills Katya. And although it is unlawful to separate the “poor killer” from the rest, rewarding only him with the “ace of diamonds”, a special role is really given to him in the poem. What is the meaning of this dramatic episode, which occupies such a large place in the poem?
Consider the structure of the poem. Let us recall the course of events. The first chapter of the poem is expositional in nature. The main characters appear in the second chapter. Several people take part in the conversation about Vanka and Katya. Petrukha owns the last remark:

Well, Vanka, son of a bitch, bourgeois
Mine, try, kiss!
This is Petrukha's personal theme, the voice of his jealousy and anger at the traitor and the lover. Here it still sounds like an accidental cry and is immediately drowned out by the voice of common duty.
The third chapter develops this theme: "How did our guys go to serve in the Red Guard ...". But in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh songs, we find ourselves in a circle of completely different motives: Vanka and Katya are rolling on a reckless car, Petrukha lovingly and rudely recalls Katya and her infidelities, in every possible way shows her zatbenny prowess (“Eh, eh, sin! It will be easier for the soul! ", the Red Guards are hunting for Vanka, and a stray bullet from Petrukhina overtakes Katya. All twelve participate in the scene of the chase and murder(“Stop, stop! Andryukha, help! Petrukha, run back! ..”, but here and further, in songs seven and eight, Petrukha - main character. According to the critic, his drama begins, unfolds and ends, to which the rest do not care much. The murder scene is significant in this sense, and ends with the already familiar call not to forget about the common duty: “Revolutionary keep step! The restless enemy does not sleep! . Petruha is left alone with his little human tragedy. Now he is a deeply unhappy man, who has seriously sinned and fallen into bitter, hysterical repentance:
And twelve come again
Behind the gun.
Only the poor killer
Can't see a face...
Everything is faster and faster
Slows down the step.
Wrapped a scarf around his neck -
It won't get better...
He is so discouraged that his comrades, who are not at all up to his little tragedy, are trying to cheer him up. First - in a friendly, affectionate way:
What, comrade, are you not cheerful?
What, my friend, dumbfounded?
What, Petruha, hung his nose,
Or did you feel sorry for Katya?
Then (since Petruha is tearing herself up more and more) - much more severely, demandingly and implacably:

Look, bastard, started a hurdy-gurdy,
What are you, Petka, a woman or what?
- That's right, the soul inside out
Thinking of turning it out? Please!
- Maintain your posture!
- Keep control over yourself!
- Not such a time now.
To babysit you!
The burden will be heavier
Us, dear comrade!
The last argument is decisive: Petruha slows down her hurried steps, tosses her head. Again, as we see, the theme of common duty triumphs. The last couplet - in terms of its ideological load - is one of the most important in the poem. Here the nature of its collective hero is fully clarified: the Red Guards are aware of the greatness of the times and know that even more severe trials lie ahead of them.
The ashamed Petruha stops twisting his soul, tries to pull himself together, "he has become cheerful again." But his joy - bitter, hoarse - is not fun, but all the same ostentatious, dashing, noisy prowess, behind which hides both heavy anguish and unceasing remorse. It was then that he begins to “scare”, threatens to pour blood over the memory of the “darling”, in vain remembers the Lord God:
Eh, eh!
Having fun is not a sin!
Lock up the floors
Today there will be robberies!
Open cellars -
Walking now nakedness!
But who is he afraid of? The answer to this is given by the following, eighth song, brilliant in verse, which recreated the spirit, color and form of the folk “lament” with amazing skill:
Oh, you, grief - bitter!
Boredom is boring
Mortal!
I'm on time
I'll go, I'll go...
I'm already dark
I'll scratch, I'll scratch...
I'm seeds
I'll get it, I'll get it...
Already I am a knife
Stripe, stripe!
And then this bitter, hoarse, feigned prowess finds a single goal: You fly, bourgeois, like a little sparrow!
I'll drink blood
For a sweetheart
Chernobrovushka...
This furious outburst has its own deep psychological certainty: Petrukha has his own scores with the bourgeois world, with which his Katya (who walked with officers and cadets) got mixed up and which ultimately turned out to be the culprit of her accidental death - after all, Vanka, because of whom she died, also "bourgeois".
The eighth and ninth chapters are the central and turning point of the poem. Here the plot breaks down: everything personal that was brought to the forefront of the narrative - reckless prowess, love tragedy, jealousy, crime, despair and the “woe-bitter” of the killer - is absorbed by a wide, free and powerful melody. It is here, in the song of the Red Guards, that the image of the old world, the "lousy dog", first appears. The question is: why did Blok assign such a large place to the personal drama of Petrukha, and then reduced it to nothing? “Now is not such a time” - this is the formula of this belief. Every personal tragedy at such a time is drowned in the "sea" of revolution, in the universal, world-historical tragedy of the catastrophic collision of two worlds. In his personal plan, Blok resolved this issue categorically: "The revolution is me - not alone, but we"; there is no personal - because the world Revolution becomes the content of all life; a person who has fallen to witness the birth of a new world should remember as little as possible about personal weaknesses and tragedies. Just don't oversimplify. The categorical nature of the decision did not mean that it was a simple and easy matter to make it. Hatred of the old world was in Blok a dominant, all-consuming feeling that justified everything. He understood, of course, that along with the violence, lies, meanness and vulgarity of the old world, in the fire of the revolution, some of what he “soloved", with which his lonely "demonic delights" were connected. But hehe also understood that in the name of the great, universal historical truth one must sacrifice one's own little "truths". This is where Blok's spiritual strength, that "fearless sincerity" that Gorky noticed in him, was expressed. Blok's idea of ​​the immeasurability of "personal tragedies" with the grandeur of what is happening in a peculiar way (adjusted for the plot and character) echoed in the story of Petrukha. It cannot be said that the poet condemns Petrukha. Rather, he pities him. And the mental anguish of this desperate, "stupid" man who had gone astray, and his passionate, stuffy love with painful memories of "drunk nights" and "fiery eyes" - all this could not but be close to the poet, who always found a source of high inspiration in the themes of tragic passion and human despair. But all this must burn out in the fire of the revolution. This is how a new person should be born. After all, Blok saw one of the important tasks set by the revolution in directing its purifying fire into "Rasputin's corners of the soul and there fanning it into a fire to the sky so that the cunning, lazy, slavish lust burns out."
Desperate, headless Petruha is the weakest of the twelve. If they themselves do not constitute the vanguard of the revolution, then Petruha is their own rearguard. Even now he helplessly commemorates the Savior, and again his comrades read him a harsh rebuke:
- Petka! Hey, don't lie!
What saved you from
Golden iconostasis?
Unconscious you, right,
Judge, think sensibly -
Ali hands are not in the blood
Because of Katya's love?
- Take a revolutionary step!
The restless enemy is near!
So Petruha received the correct characterization, and from his own comrades: "unconscious." They know in the name of what they are holding their revolutionary step. “We are ready for everything, nothing is a pity”, “The burden will be heavier ...”, “Their rifles are steel against an invisible enemy”, “They go far with a sovereign step ...”. Doesn't this such a distinct and so constant note of revolutionary duty drown out the hysterical cry of spiritual revelry that we hear in the remarks of the "poor murderer" Petrukha?
Twelve are busy with their work: they are patrolling the city at night. They are on the alert: "Here - a fierce enemy will wake up ...". And they sing not thieves couplets and not hysterical lamentations, but they pick up the motive of "Varshavyanka": "March, march forward, working people!" And in the tempos and rhythms of this beautiful fighting song of the working class, the motifs of reckless revelry dissolve without a trace (Petrukha, in the end, also pulled himself up and joined the step of his comrades), and the theme of the invincible strength of the insurgent people, the irresistible movement of the twelve to the distant goals:
And they go without the name of a saint
All twelve - away.
Ready for everything
Nothing to be sorry...
It beats in the eyes
Red flag.
Is distributed
Measure step.
Here - wake up
Fierce enemy...
And the blizzard dusts them in the eyes
Days and nights
All the way...
Go-go,
Working people!
And so on - with ever-increasing expression, in order to achieve the highest tension and pathos in the finale. The violent "freemen" turns into a strict, musically organized revolutionary will.
An ideologically significant question can be answered only by building a structural chain of events that took place. Having built this chain, we will see that the personal drama in the poem occupied a large place. It was this construction of the poem that helped to determine the place of this episode in the work.
Revolutions, as you know, are different. That revolution, the fighting force of which the “twelve” considered themselves to be, was unique, one of a kind. It was the destruction "to the ground" of the "old world", a "break" between two historical zones. "The Twelve" are the apostles of the new world, heralds of the "new heaven and new earth." Blok's Red Guards are also children, "children in the Iron Age," as the author of The Twelve called them in his diary entry. They do not know what they are doing, but this does not relieve them of the guilt for creating a world in which violence will be the main principle.
--- More than once, critics have noted that "The Twelve", for all its apparent simplicity, is not a simple work at all. Let us pay attention to the mysterious central episode of the poem. Why, in fact, is a criminal offense devoid of any class or revolutionary grounds at the center of this poem about the Revolution? Why did Vanka and Katka annoy the Red Army soldiers so much, why do they seek to deal with Vanka, and Katya's death is perceived by them as a fair retribution? But let's deal first with the first, with the soldier Vanka. The poem seems to explain the reason for the hunt for him:
Fuck - ramble! You will know
How to walk with a strange girl! ..
If with a stranger, then with Petkina, but why are all the "twelve" so eager to deal with Katya's new lover? What do they care, after all, about Petka's feelings? And then: Katya is a prostitute, she is not Vankina, not Petkina, she is for everyone and a draw. Something is obviously wrong here, but let's leave these considerations for now and talk about other possible motives for the strange hatred of the Red Guards for their former comrade. These are two motives. Firstly, Vanka is a stranger; second, rich. Both motifs are present in the replica of one of the "twelve":
Vanyushka himself is now rich ...
There was our Vanka, but he became a soldier!
In the same chapter, Vanka is called a bourgeois. Vanka is a soldier of the Petrograd garrison, who did not defend the Provisional Government in the October days. And the word "soldier" sounded then by no means counter-revolutionary. Why, after all, Vanka is "not ours" - from the point of view of the Red Guards? Were there any conflicts or friction between the Red Guards and the soldiers then? Friction between the soldiers and the Red Guards, therefore, was, and the soldiers were jealous of the Red Guards, and not vice versa. But there were no armed conflicts. Perhaps the reason for the lynching that the "twelve" seek to arrange over Vanka is that he is a thief? However, theft and robbery then - a mass phenomenon. This way of enrichment was not closed to the "twelve", although they preferred to rob only wine cellars. But they obviously envy Vanka's "wealth" and therefore call him "bourgeois". So the envy of Vanka's "wealth" is undoubtedly present in the "twelve". But she is not the reason for the hostility, moreover, the hatred of the Red Guard patrol for him. The reason is something or someone else.
Was Katya's murder accidental? Petka commits it in a state of passion, the rest of the patrolmen were not going to kill her. But they do not grieve, but perceive what happened with purely criminal cynicism:
What, Katya is happy? - No hoo...
Lie down, you carrion, in the snow!
But no "music of the revolution" can, however, relieve the mental anguish of the "poor murderer" Petrukha. If there had been a policeman who would have dragged him to the station, it would probably have been easier for him. But during the Revolution there are no policemen, the Red Guard patrol is itself a representative of the revolutionary order, and therefore Petka is alone with his pain before God. An attempt to forget himself in a drunken spree leads him only to "mortal boredom", to spiritual devastation. Comrades do not understand him. For them, stepping over blood is not a crime, but communion with the truth of the Revolution. “Among them there are those,” Blok wrote in the article “The Intelligentsia and the Revolution,” “who go crazy with lynching, cannot stand the blood that they shed in their darkness ...”. Here is one of those Petka. He is tormented, he wants enlightenment, and he is offered to keep the “revolutionary step”. And yet from this torment of the “poor murderer” Petka is a thin thread to Christ, not to what appears in the finale, but to the real, gospel.
etc.................

Today I am a genius!
Alexander Blok

The poem "The Twelve" was a response to the events of 1917. The attitude towards the revolution was determined through the expectation of a cleansing storm, sweeping away the old world, hated by the poet. Block's "Note" about the poem has been preserved: “In January 1918, for the last time, I surrendered to the elements no less blindly than in January 1907 and March 1914. That is why I do not renounce what was written then, because it was written in agreement with the elements. Therefore, those who see political verses in The Twelve are either very blind to art, or sit up to their ears in political mud, or are possessed by great malice - whether they are enemies or friends of my poem..

“The Twelve—whatever it is—is the best thing I've written. Because back then I was living in the present.”, the poet said. However, the first reading of the poem usually causes bewilderment and many questions.

Question

Why is the poem called "The Twelve"? What is the meaning of the name?

Answer

First, the poem contains twelve chapters. Secondly, the heroes of the poem are twelve Red Army soldiers. Thirdly, the image of Christ walking ahead of these Red Army soldiers (at the end of the poem) evokes associations with the twelve apostles. The next question arises. Why Christ? What does this image mean in the poem? We will try to answer this question at the end of the lesson.

The poem surprised even Blok's contemporaries. According to Mayakovsky, "Some read in this poem a satire on the revolution, others read its glory".

"The Twelve" is an epic poem, as if made up of separate sketches, pictures from life, quickly replacing one another. The dynamism and chaotic nature of the plot, the expressiveness of the episodes that make up the poem, conveys the confusion that reigned both on the streets and in the minds.

The poem is constructed as a series of successive scenes from the night life of Petrograd in early 1918. There is nothing here that resembles the glorification of the revolution, on the contrary, - "malice, sad malice", shooting, robbery, extinct black city. "Rootless Dog"- an image that most accurately conveys the state of the inhabitants of Petrograd, associated with "old world" and yesterday still felt like masters of life. "Lady in karakul", "comrade pop" and "bourgeois at the crossroads" timidly hiding from events that are incomprehensible to them and are depicted by Blok with undisguised irony.

Against the background of the devastated city, twelve Red Guards "without a cross" make their victorious march: “In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed, / An ace of diamonds should be on the back!”. The ace of diamonds - a flap with a rhombus - was attached to the back of convicts and bandits. With the advent of the detachment, the theme of revolution arises in the poem:

Revolutionary keep step!

Question

twelve fighters "they go far with a sovereign step" under the fluttering "bloody flag". In their masterly steps, Blok hears the music of a new world being born.

The composition reflects the element of the revolution, determines the stylistic diversity of the poem. "Listen to the Music of the Revolution", Block calls.

Question

As Block reports "music of the revolution"?

Answer

Primarily, "music" Blok has a metaphor, an expression of "spirit", the sound of the elements of life. This music is reflected in the rhythmic, lexical, and genre diversity of the poem. Traditional iambs and trochees are combined with different meters, sometimes with non-rhyming verse.

Question

What rhythms did you hear?

Answer

In the poem they sound march intonation:

It beats in the eyes
Red flag.
Is distributed
Measure step.
Here - wake up
Fierce enemy.

Heard urban romance. It is interestingly played up: the beginning is familiar, and then the revelry went:

Can't hear the noise of the city
Silence over the Neva tower
And there is no more policeman -
Walk, guys, without wine!

Often meets ditty motif:

Lock up the floors
Today there will be robberies!
Open cellars -
Walking now nakedness!

Directly quoted revolutionary song:

Go-go,
Working people!

In addition to music, slogans stand out noticeably in the poem: "All power to the Constituent Assembly!", fragments of conversations are heard:

…And we had a meeting…
…Here in this building…

The language of the poem was unusual for readers. "In harmony with the elements"- completely new rhythms sounded: a ditty ( "Eh, eh, dance! / It hurts the legs are good!"), urban romance ( “You can’t hear the noise of the city…”), soldier song ( "How did our guys go ..."), mischievous street speech ( “Lock the floors, / Today there will be robberies!”).

Question

What vocabulary is found in the poem?

Answer

The structure of the vocabulary is varied. This is the language of slogans and proclamations, and colloquial language with vernacular: "What, my friend, dumbfounded?"; and word distortions: "floors", "electric"; and reduced, "abusive" vocabulary: "cholera", "ate", "scoundrel"; and high syllable:

With a gentle step over the wind,
Snowy scattering of pearls,
In a white corolla of roses -
The front is Jesus Christ.

Question

How does Blok depict the characters of the poem?

Answer

The characters are drawn concisely and expressively. This is a figurative comparison: “an old woman, like a chicken, / somehow rewound through a snowdrift”; speech characteristic: "Traitors! Russia is dead! / Must be a writer - / Vitya ... "; biting epithet and oxymoron: “And there is the long-haired one - / Side by side behind the snowdrift ... / What is gloomy now, / Comrade pop?”.

Twelve heroes make up one squad: “In the teeth - a cigarette, a cap is crushed, / An ace of diamonds should be on the back!”- briefly and clearly - "the prison is crying for them". Among them Petka, "poor killer", who cheered up at the reminder of his comrades: "Keep control over yourself!".

Katka is shown in more detail. Here is the appearance: “teeth shine with pearls”, “painful legs are good”, “fat-faced” and lifestyle: “she has Kerenki in her stocking”, “she fornicated with officers”, and attractive charm: “because of the trouble’s prowess / In her fiery eyes, / Because of a crimson mole / Near the right shoulder ...”.

Question

What is the peculiarity of the plot of the poem?

Answer

The plot can be defined as two-layered - external, everyday: sketches from Petrograd streets, and internal: motives, justification of the actions of the "twelve", One of the centers of the poem is the end of the 6th chapter: the motive of revenge, murder merges with the motive of the slogans of the revolution:

What, Katya, are you glad? - No gu-gu...
Lie down, you carrion, in the snow!
Revolutionary keep step!
The restless enemy does not sleep!

Question

Track where and how the motive of hatred changes?

Answer

The motive of hatred is observed in seven chapters of the poem. Hatred also manifests itself as a holy feeling:

Anger, sad anger
Boiling in the chest...
Black malice, holy malice...

And as sacrilege:

Comrade, hold the rifle, don't be afraid!
Let's fire a bullet at Holy Russia -
In the condo
Into the hut
Into the fat ass!
Eh, eh, no cross!

Question

What motifs did you see in the poem?

Answer

The motif of vigilance occurs several times: "The restless enemy does not sleep!". General hatred, readiness to fight the enemy, spurring vigilance and distrust constitute the revolutionary consciousness of the detachment. In the center of the poem is the permissiveness of massacre, the depreciation of life, freedom "without a cross." The second center of the poem is in chapter 11:

... They go without the name of a saint
All twelve are off.
Ready for everything
Nothing to regret...

Question

What symbolic images did you notice in the poem?

Answer

Wind, blizzard, snow - constant block motifs; color symbols: "Black evening. / White snow", bloody flag; number twelve, "dog without a root", Christ.

Question

What is the significance of the image of Christ in the poem?

Answer

Some perceive the image of Christ as an attempt to sanctify the cause of the revolution, others as blasphemy. The appearance of Christ, perhaps, is a guarantee of the future light, a symbol of the best, justice, love, a sign of faith. He "and unharmed by a bullet" and he is dead "in a white halo of roses". "Twelve" shoot at him, even "invisible". Perhaps the appearance of Christ meant the possibility of a future transformation, and, consequently, the approval of the revolution.

“Christ” in the poem is the antithesis of “dog” as the embodiment of evil, the central “sign” of the old world, is the brightest note of the poem, the traditional image of goodness and justice”(L. Dolgopolov).

“When I finished, I myself was surprised: why Christ? But the more I looked, the more clearly I saw Christ. And then I wrote down at myself: "Unfortunately, Christ". That Christ goes before them is certain. The point is not whether they are worthy of him, but the scary thing is that he is with them again and there is no other yet, but another is needed? Block wrote.

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11 program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the XX century / St. Petersburg: Paritet, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. I semester. M.: VAKO, 2005

Evgenia Ivanova. Alexander Alexandrovich Blok. // Encyclopedia for children "Avanta +". Volume 9. Russian literature. Part two. XX century. M., 1999